Trump revokes Biden order that ended 2020 sanctions targeting the ICC

US President Donald Trump on Monday reversed an executive order of the Biden administration, renewing sanctions against members of the International Criminal Court in The Hague who probe US troops, as he issued a flurry of orders to immediately begin enacting his hardline policies and undoing those of his predecessor.

The Biden executive order Trump had itself overturned an executive order Trump had issued against the ICC in 2020 during his first term, block US property and assets of any official at the ICC who investigates US troops, as the court examined alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan.

Israel has been urging Trump to sanction the ICC over arrest warrants it issued against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Congress has been advancing its own sanctions against the court, but the effort still needs to get through a divided Senate.

The 2020 sanctions were implemented over the court’s efforts to investigate American troops and intelligence officials for possible war crimes in Afghanistan.

Neither the US nor Israel are parties to the court and have therefore argued that it has no jurisdiction to probe either of them.

Earlier this month the US House of Representatives voted to sanction the ICC to protest its decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over Israel’s campaign against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

Lawmakers voted 243 to 140 in favor of the “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act,” which would urge sanctions on any ICC official or entities backing The Hague who advance “any effort to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies.”

The sanctions include blocking or revoking visas and prohibiting US property transactions.

The legislation states that the US and Israel are not signatories to the Rome Statute that created the ICC, which accordingly has no jurisdiction over their conduct.

Forty-five Democrats joined 198 Republicans in backing the bill. No Republicans voted against the measure, but Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie abstained, saying afterward that the House “should not get involved in disputes between other countries.”

The House vote, one of the first since the new Congress was seated, underscored strong support for Israel’s government among Trump’s fellow Republicans, who now control both chambers in Congress.

“America is passing this law because a kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally, Israel,” Florida Republican Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a House speech before the vote.

The legislation still needs to be okayed in the Senate, where it will have a harder time passing, although newly appointed Republican majority leader John Thune has promised swift consideration of the act so Trump can sign it into law shortly after taking office.

In order to be passed in the Senate, Republicans will need to recruit around seven Democrats to vote with them, which may be difficult.

Congressional Republicans have been denouncing the ICC since it issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza.

The warrants effectively bar Netanyahu and Gallant from entering the ICC’s 124 member states.

The charges against the two men allege that they committed the war crimes of directing attacks against the civilian population of Gaza and of using starvation as a method of warfare by hindering the supply of international aid to Gaza.

Chief prosecutor Karim Khan also alleged that they committed the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts as a result of the restrictions they allegedly placed on the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Israel has strongly rejected the substance of the allegations, insisting that it has funneled massive amounts of humanitarian aid through the crossings along the Gaza border, and that any problems with the distribution of that aid to the Palestinian civilian population are a result of inefficient operations by the aid organizations on the ground, difficulties arising from the conflict in the territory, and the looting of aid by Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

Israel has also rejected allegations that it targets civilians, insisting that civilian casualties caused by the operation have resulted in large part due to Hamas’s tactic of embedding its fighters and installations within Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.

The war in Gaza was sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive killed more than 46,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The figure cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, of whom Israel says it has killed at least 18,000 in Gaza as of November, in addition to about 1,000 inside Israel during the onslaught.

Sunday saw a ceasefire and hostage release deal between the sides come into effect, mediated by Biden and Trump’s envoys alongside Egypt and Qatar. Israel and Hamas have agreed to a 42-day first phase that will see the release of 33 Israeli hostages and some 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of which were convicted of terrorist acts including the murders of Israelis.

The mediated agreement envisions three phases that will ultimately lead to an end to the war, though it remains unclear whether the sides will be able to come to an agreement on phases two and three, and Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition partners are pressuring him to resume the war when phase one ends.

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